


Don't Be Shy

by FeelTheFiction



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Because they're both emotionally stunted, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hurt, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Neverland, Teasing, but they don't know it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-05-07 06:09:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19203475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeelTheFiction/pseuds/FeelTheFiction
Summary: You and Felix have developed a playful friendship during your time on Neverland, but that all starts to change after one archery practice.





	1. Chapter 1

Felix made archery look easy. 

You watched as he pulled an arrow from his quiver, nocked it, drew, then released. The whole process took him three seconds at the most and his arrow only missed the centre of the target by no more than half an inch. 

You sighed and turned to look at your own target. Like Felix’s, it was made up of concentric circles that had been carved into a thick tree trunk then painted white. 

Unlike Felix’s, it only held arrows in the outermost rings. Luckily, today you had managed to avoid missing the target altogether and firing into the foliage behind it. 

The fact that you still couldn’t shoot a bow and arrow as well as most of the Lost Boys could, even after twenty years on the island, was becoming extremely frustrating. So Felix suggested that the two of you practice archery skills today you readily agreed.

It had become normal in the past few months for the two of you to train together. During that time your friendship had developed from making basic conversation around camp to throwing playful insults at each other and laughing around the nightly campfire.            

Today however, you regretted not extending the invitation to train to some of the other boys. Having only Felix, who was _ever_ the master of weaponry, as the sole person to compare your own archery skills to proved to be fairly disheartening. 

Especially when he managed to shoot as perfectly as he just did every time he loosed an arrow. 

Every. Single. Time.

“Are you having trouble?” Felix asked. He’d lowered his bow and turned to face you, the faintest trace of a smirk on his lips. His smugness only frustrated you’re more. 

“Archery isn’t my strongest skill.” You said, irritated. 

He hummed in agreement. “That’s true. You are pretty shit at it.” 

“Thanks for that vote of confidence.”

“You’re welcome.” He chuckled. 

Rolling your eyes you turned to face the target and nock another arrow. You delayed drawing your bow while you repositioned your feet and adjusted your posture, trying to set yourself up for something more than failure.

You glanced at Felix and realised he was still watching you.

You felt your fingers tighten on the bow. Even after all these months training together it still made you nervous to practice with weapons in front of Felix. He was a seasoned fighter and adept at using almost every weapon available on the island. Your attempts to wield them beside him must’ve looked childish. 

You knew his skill set was the result of centuries of practice but you still hated to seem weak in front of him. Felix’s opinion of you mattered much more to you than you would ever admit. Sometimes you worried that your incompetence as a fighter would one day cause him to think of you as a stupid little girl. 

You were still well aware that he was watching you, waiting for your inevitable failure. He’d probably make some smart ass remark about it as well. 

You tried to shake the distractions from your head, refocusing on your current task. _Here goes nothing._

You drew the string, arms struggling to pull the weight of it all the way back to your chin, your chosen anchor point. As your gloved thumb grazed your jawline you took a second to aim and then loosed the arrow. Your tired arms sagged with gratitude at the absence of strain as it shot through the air. 

Only to just make it onto the very outer circle of the target. Again. 

“Well, that wasn’t the _worst_ shot I’ve ever seen,” Felix said, smiling softly as he folded his arms his chest. “I mean it was pretty bad for a Lost Girl, but at least you hit the target.”

There it was. That smart ass remark. 

“Asshole.” You scoffed. You averted your eyes from him to the ground. Another stupid thing you had to go and do in front of him. “You know I’m terrible at archery. I’ll never get better. I shouldn’t have even come today.”

Your friendship had always involved this sort of teasing. One of you would say something to the other, and then the other would fire back with some remark of their own. You didn’t understand why today it made you feel more hopeless than anything else. 

You head Felix’s boots crunch over the forest floor as he walked across the clearing. You looked up as he paused a few feet away from you. The smile his face had faded and he regarded you silently, his face giving no indication to what he was thinking. 

After a few seconds, he walked closer towards you, reaching behind you to grab an arrow from out of your quiver. 

“What are you doing?” You asked. 

He handed you the arrow. “Nock it but don’t shoot. And position yourself like you normally would before you shoot.”

He was trying to help you. You sighed, knowing it wouldn’t do much good. Many of the Lost Boys had tried to help you before to avail, but you did as he asked anyway. 

“Angle your right foot a little more this way.” He nudged your foot with his own. You adjusted it as walked behind you. 

His fingers were light as he rested them on your left shoulder, but you still tensed slightly. Aside from fighting, physical contact wasn’t exactly common on Neverland and you couldn’t remember the last time sometime had touched you so gently. “Pull this shoulder back a tiny bit more so it lines up with your other.”

You obliged but said, “I appreciate you trying to help Felix, but I think your efforts are being wasted.” Your voice was soft. Much softer than it was before he touched your shoulder.

“Just do as I say Y/N.” Felix said. His voice was close to your ear and its deepness was even more prominent than usual. You quickly realised how little space there was between you.

You weren’t used to someone being this close, but before you could decide if you liked it or not Felix settled his other hand on your waist. You stood still. You could feel how much bigger than yours his hands were. HIs fingertips reached a third of the way across your stomach. 

“You’re holding too much tension in your core.” He murmured. “You need to relax your muscles there.” 

“How am I supposed to relax anything with you standing so close to me?” You breathed. 

You didn’t think about those words before they came out of your mouth.

Felix was silent for a heartbeat. Then you felt him remove his hands from your body. You were shocked to find how much you instantly missed his touch and began to wish you had just kept your mouth shut. 

“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” He said. 

“It wasn’t… uncomfortable.” You said quietly. “It was just unusual, and a little distracting.”

Felix went quiet again for a few seconds. “Take the shot and see if it’s any better. Remember what I told you. Try not to hold it at the anchor point for more than a second either.”

Doing as he asked was easier said than done. Every muscle in your body seemed that little bit tighter than before and so the only thing you could manage to accomplish was holding your shoulders differently. 

You drew back the arrow again, quickly lining up the target and then loosing it in what you hoped was no more than a second. Much to your surprise, the arrow landed about four inches to the left of the bullseye. Not a spectacular shot, but definitely better than usual. 

You lowered the bow and turned to Felix. Once again he’d turned his face an unreadable mask and you could only guess what he was thinking as he stared at you. The Lost Boy seemed to be a master at hiding his emotions. 

“I guess you’re a better teacher than I thought.” You said. _Please don’t be awkward about the touching thing,_ you silently begged. “I still don’t know how you manage to do this without your arms aching. Mine are going to be sore for days now.”

The corners of his mouth turned up, but his small smile seemed empty and didn’t even begin to reach his eyes. “It will get easier with more practice. Until then you’re going to have to deal with the aching.”

“I feel like more practice is still a bit of a waste of time. I’m not suited for archery.”

“You did pretty well today.” 

“That was only because you were here to help me.” Sighing, you ran your fingers along the wooden arms of your bow. “I never could have done that on my own.”

“Nobody learns things like this on their own,” Felix said. He paused for a few seconds before speaking again. “Though you are much better with knives and close up fighting. Devin is good at that. You should ask him to train with you tomorrow.”

Felix walked past you towards his own target. 

“You’re good at close up styles of fighting too.” You said quietly, turning to face him. “Don’t you want to train with me?”

Felix stopped. The temperature on Neverland had been more humid than usual and he had forgone his cloak for the day, which meant you could see his back muscles flex slightly underneath his shirt as he adjusted his quiver.

“We’ve been training together for months now. It would benefit you to have a new opponent so you don’t become complacent in your fighting style.” He said. Instead of turning around to speak to you he merely resumed walking towards his target. “We should collect the arrows. It’s almost sundown and we need to get back to camp.”

You didn’t move for a few seconds, but rather cast your eyes to the ground. What he said had made sense. You needed to train against different opponents to become a better fighter. 

Yet he hadn’t even bothered to turn around and look at you when he spoke.

 _You rejected his touch. He let himself be gentle with you_ _and you made him think you hated it._

You looked up at the Lost Boy, who still had his back to you as he collected his arrows. If you hadn’t had someone show you physical affection in your few decades on Neverland, how long had Felix gone without it?

He was one of the first Lost Boys, here for over two centuries. You knew he hardly ever allowed himself to be too open with others, so the fact he touched you meant you were probably one of the very few people Felix felt comfortable around. Someone he trusted. 

You wondered if you had just somehow severed that trust. You hoped you hadn’t. 

“Y/N.” Felix called. He still didn’t look at you. “Your arrows.”

“Right.” You said, finally moving. “Of course.” 

 _I’ll find a way to tell him,_ you thought as you pulled out your arrows and placed them back into your quiver. _Somehow, I’ll tell Felix that I didn’t mind it when he held me like that._


	2. Chapter 2

Felix had spent his day fixing weapons. It wasn't a particularly hard task, considering that the weapons themselves weren't intricately built, but it did however take time. The only time he'd moved from the flat slab of stone he'd sat on was to eat lunch, which he'd quickly finished in order to return to his task.

 

It wasn't that he was eager to fix the weapons the Lost Boys had so carelessly broken, but that the task gave him an excuse to avoid Y/N. He had, in fact, been making a considerable effort to stay away from her ever since the archery incident.

 

The shift in her training partners from himself over to Devin and some of the other boys made that easier for him. Unfortunately, weapons practice was only one of the few ways the Lost Ones spent their time (how he and Y/N had spent their time together) and so Felix had thrown himself into whatever small, menial tasks he could find to occupy himself and use as an excuse to avoid her.

 

This had been going on for days.

 

Seven days, to be exact. He had counted.

 

Felix didn't know how to describe how he felt about her sudden absence in his day, only that he didn't like it.

 

He didn't like the way he automatically went to sit next to her at meals, or that he had to make a conscious effort not to look at her from across the camp. He was especially not fond of the fact that every time he heard her laughing with the other boys his chest clenched up because she was obviously having a good time without him. 

 

Approaching her at all would only make things worse. She'd made it quite clear she felt uneasy around him and he wasn't willing to endure that kind of rejection again.

 

Hindsight is twenty-twenty and looking back he was stupid to have not seen it sooner. To have not seen how much more carefree she was around everyone but him, or how she became that little bit quieter every time he approached her.

 

Had he forced their friendship on her? Did she feel obligated to accept his offers of going hunting or mountain hiking together, only agreeing because her stubbornness wouldn't allow her to openly show her apprehension towards him?

 

What a fool he was to have hoped she held affection for him.

 

"Argh!" He threw down the dagger in his hand. The handle he had been reattaching to the steel broke off as it hit the cold stone of the boulder. He shoved the broken parts onto the ground and groaned.

 

A few of the Lost Boys looked up at the commotion he'd made but none said a word. Felix glared at all of them and they instantly turned away.

 

"You've been in a constant bad mood for the past week," Pan said. He appeared next to Felix like he always did, abruptly and unexpectedly. "What a coincidence that it seemed to have started the same time you began avoiding Y/N."

 

"I'm not avoiding her," Felix said. A lie. A complete lie.

 

Pan scoffed. "You know Felix, you're a loyal friend, but you're also an idiot if you think I can't see you have feelings for Y/N."

 

"I don't have feelings for Y/N."

 

"Of course you do," Pan said. As usual, he was completely confident (and as much as Felix hated to admit to himself, correct) in his observations. "You can barely keep your eyes off her most of the time. So what happened? Did you two have a fight?"

 

Felix sighed. "No. We didn't fight."

 

"But something did happen." Pan deduced. "What was it? An awkward kiss?'

 

"No nothing like that." He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. It was no use lying to Pan. "When we went archery practising the other day I adjusted her posture to help her shoot better. Turns out Y/N couldn't stand me touching her."

 

"She told you this?" Pan asked.

 

Felix nodded. "She did."

 

Pan considered this for a second, taking a bite of an apple that appeared from nowhere. "Are you sure?" He said in-between chewing. "What did she say exactly?"

 

Felix wrung his hands together in frustration. "I don't know. I… I can't remember exactly. Something about not being able to relax when she's close to me." He said. "It's not like it matters now anyway. I told her to train with the other boys so she doesn't have to be around me."

 

Pan raised his eyebrows and laughed a little. "So a girl you like, who's a Lost One and is only used to being touched in a fight, tells you she feels nervous when you hold her and you what, make every possible effort to avoid her after you decide she abhors your company?" Pan gave him a pointed look. "Bit of an overreaction don't you think? No wonder she thinks you hate her."

 

"Hate her?" Felix turned to face Pan completely. "Y/N thinks I hate her? Did she tell you this?"

 

"She did, and I don't blame her with the way you've been acting. Really Felix, what did you expect she'd think when you ignore her every time she tries to talk to you?"

 

"I don't know Pan." He snapped. Collecting himself and lowering his voice he said, "Does _she_ hate _me_?"

 

Pan rolled his eyes and said with a mouthful of fruit, "I don't think I've ever seen a boy so immune to a woman's feelings. No Felix, she doesn't hate you. In case you haven't figured out from her barely leaving your side for months, she obviously likes you."

 

Felix let his head fall forward into his hands, tugging at his untamed strands of hair. Pan was always right, he'd believed that after years on Neverland. Still, he was reluctant to trust his friend about Y/N's feelings. He'd never had feelings for anyone on Neverland and when he lived in the Enchanted Forest his affections for girls was seldom returned.

 

He had no idea how to go about any of this, as was obvious by the mess he'd already made of things. No matter what he did it always seemed to be the wrong thing.

 

"Perhaps… I did overreact." He said.

 

Pan scoffed. "That's an understatement."

 

"You're not helping." Felix sighed. "What do I do?"

 

"Talking to her again would probably be a good place to start. You can't exactly win her over by ignoring her." Pan said, taking another bite of his apple. "Apologising too. Lots of it."

 

"Talking. Apologising. Got it."

 

"Chin up Felix." Pan stood up and clapped him on the back. "I'm sure everything will turn out just fine. Be sure to let me know how it goes."

 

"Will do," Felix said. Pan nodded in farewell and walked back into the midst of the Lost Boys.

 

Felix stared at the dirt. God, he really was a fool, wasn't he?

 

He decided tonight after dinner he'd take Y/N aside and talk to her then. He'd confess everything, his feelings, why he avoided her, how good it felt to hold her and have her close…

 

Then he'd apologise, profusely, and ask her to have him even though sometimes he can barely see what's right in front of him.

 

He held out a tiny inkling of hope that tonight he might actually get to kiss her.


	3. Chapter 3

You had realised over the past week (over the seven days Felix had avoided you) that what you felt for Felix was stronger than just friendship.

 

Upon reflection, it had become clear that you'd had these feelings all along and simply chosen to ignore they were there, slowly growing stronger with every day that you and Felix spent together.

 

It wasn't hard to convince yourself that your heart fluttered for no particular reason when he smiled at you, or that the silent desire to impress him when you trained was out of competition and not because you secretly loved the way he looked at you with pride when you outmanoeuvred him.

 

Or simply when he looked at you.

 

You assumed the awkward tension that lingered in the air at the archery range would be gone the next morning. Even if you began to train with some of the other Lost Boys, you were sure that whatever you had built with Felix over these past months wouldn't be damaged.

Obviously, the archery incident had affected Felix more than you'd anticipated. Ever since it happened, it was like all the time you had spent together was suddenly cast to the wind and his new objective was now keeping as far away from you as he could manage, no matter how hard you tried to oppose his efforts.

 

Felix failed to return every smiled you'd given him and always slipped away whenever he saw you approaching. On the rare occasion you'd managed to corner him into a conversation, you'd been met with curt replies and a hollow absence of the usual playfulness usually existed between you. It was beginning to cut deep.

 

You'd approached him after breakfast this morning and asked him to join a fishing trip to catch tonight's dinner. He'd declined, like he seemed declined joining any activity that involved you, claiming that he needed to fix the weapons that had been broken in the pirate fight days earlier.

 

You were well aware that there was no imminent need for those weapons to be fixed. They'd easily been replaced with the many spares that Pan and the boys kept. If Felix's suddenly distant demeanour wasn't enough to convince you that he was going out of his way to avoid you, then it was obvious now.

 

It was hard enough trying to work up the courage to tell him how you felt, how were you meant to tell him anything if he wouldn't even speak to you?

 

Feeling like you'd exhausted all other options bar holding Felix down and forcing him to listen to your confession, you went to Pan for help, who as it turns out wasn't much help at all. "He doesn't hate you. Just give him some time," he'd said. "Everyone needs to be a little moody sometimes. I'm sure he'll come around."

 

That conversation had you feeling even less hopeful than you already were.

 

Despite being surrounded by the Lost Boys, most of who you considered brothers, you left camp that morning feeling overwhelmingly lonely.

 

As the day went on and your thoughts of Felix had time to simmer in your mind, that loneliness turned into frustration. The underwhelming amount of fish in the lagoon certainly didn't help your building aggravation and by the time that you were carrying your disappointingly small catch back to camp most of the Lost Boys were keeping their distance lest they feel the brunt of your irritable mood.

 

"Hey, you alright?" Devin asked. He broke off from the Twins and slowed his pace to match yours.

 

"I'm fine. Just annoyed we couldn't catch more." You held up the bag for emphasis. "This is barely anything."

 

"No, it's not much, is it? It's almost like the fish don't want to be caught."

 

Despite your sour mood, you chuckled. "I couldn't possibly understand why."

 

"Me either." He said. Then a pause. "So Felix didn't want to come?"

 

"No. He didn't." You kicked a branch that had found its way onto the trail. "Apparently he had the important task of fixing the broken weapons."

 

Devin nodded slowly. "Even though there was no dire need to fix them today, or even for another week."

 

"Nope."

 

"You know he likes you right?"

 

"What?"

 

"He likes you. In a romantic way." Devin said, rolling his eyes. "Oh come on, don't tell me you don't already know? He spends nearly every day with you."

 

You scoffed. "He's barely spoken to me for the past week."

 

"Why is that?" Devin asked. "We've all been wondering what happened."

 

You stopped and put an arm out to halt him. "So all you boys have been talking about it then?"

 

"We've taken bets on how long it's going to take for you two to get together. This little hiccup has cost some of us dearly." You glared at him. "What? It's obvious you both have feelings for each other."

 

"You're wrong." You said.

 

"No, I'm not. You always act so gooey around each other." He made a face. "It's gross. But there's no denying there's a budding romance happening. It must've been a pretty big fight for him to shrug you off like that."

 

"We didn't fight!" You glanced around and realised some of the Boys were listening. Lowering your voice you said, "It's none of anyone's business if we did anyway, least of all yours. So tell the other boys to stop gossiping like old women."

 

"We're not gossiping like old women."

 

You scoffed.

 

Devin sighed. "Well whatever reason he's avoiding you doesn't erase fact that the still likes you." Smirking, he said, "you know every time you laugh at one of my jokes, he glares at me from across camp. And he glares even harder if it's just the two of us. It's actually pretty funny. I've never seen Felix jealous."

 

"Well, he has no right to be jealous." You huffed. "he's the one who told me to go train with you instead of him with in the first place."

 

Devin's smirk was still plastered on his face. "Maybe his feelings got too strong and he couldn't hide them anymore, but he was too afraid to tell you and now he's hidden himself away. Like some stupid romance novel."

 

"I highly doubt that." You hesitated before speaking again. "I think I may have… upset him, unintentionally. It was a tiny, stupid thing and I didn't expect to make him act like this."

 

Devin considered this for a second. "Besides Pan, you're the only one he bends for. He is stubborn, but I'm sure you could force him to listen to you. And it wouldn't take much convincing on your part to make him forgive you. He's head over heels in love with you already."

 

"No, he's not." The denial was automatic.

 

Of course, the odd thought of what a romance with Felix would be like had briefly danced across your mind throughout the years. It was always pushed aside by your insistence that you were just friends.

 

For a minute, you allowed yourself to imagine it as more than just a passing amusement. Felix's golden smile in the sleepy light of sunrise as he woke beside you, his toned chest exposed by the blanket you had draped across yourselves. Your hands running across his front while his own reached under the blanket and found your waist.

 

You'd feel the strength of them, like you had as he adjusted your posture, when he pulled you closer and wrapped you into his embrace. The kiss he'd plant on your lips would be slow and attentive. The callouses on his hands would brush your skin as he slowly dragged his hands lower-

 

You made yourself take a deep breath and drove the thoughts from your mind. Walking next to Devin was not the most ideal place to be having that sort of daydream.

 

"I guess I'll just have to try harder to talk to him." You said, trying to erase a tension only you could feel. "But talking to him hasn't been this hard since I first arrived on Neverland. It's like we were never even friends."

 

"Don't give him any other option but to talk with you. Demand it. And when you tell him how you feel he'll be putty in your hands." Devin said. "But maybe you should show a bit of skin, just for good measure."

 

You pushed him into the nearby bush and stole his bag of fish.

 

"Asshole." You muttered, even though you spent the rest of the walk back to camp wondering what would happen if you unbuttoned your shirt just a tad.

 

 

***

 

You were going to confront Felix that night and it was going to go like this.

 

After dumping off your catch for some of the other boys to cook for dinner, you would find him and insist that he speak with you in private. You didn't need any of the boys hearing what you had to say, they'd already proven themselves to be notorious gossips.

 

If he refused you were going to steal his club and drag him by the hood out of camp and into the jungle. There, you would tell him exactly how you felt. That you had feelings for him, that you wanted to be with him and that you wanted him to put his hands on your hips the way he had at the archery range.

 

If Devin was to be believed and all went according to plan, everything would be fine by morning.

 

Your plan was disrupted as soon as you walked into camp. 

 

There was a fire already burning in the centre of camp when you returned with the rest of the fishing party. Felix had moved from the boulder he'd placed himself on this morning to sit by the warmth of the flames. He looked up as you walked over and dropped your bags with the others.

 

You stilled for a moment when you met his gaze. The determination in his eyes was a little startling to see since he'd avoided looking at you for the past week. Before you could move he was on his feet and in front of you.

 

"I need to speak with you after dinner. Privately." He added, looking around at the Lost Boys trying not to make their eavesdropping obvious.

 

Damn him. You'd had a plan. Seconds into a conversation and he'd already taken the upper hand away from you.

 

"So you're talking to me now are you?" You said. It was the best thing you could come up with to try and reclaim some kind of control over the situation. You tried to ignore the inkling of regret that crept top your spine when he visibly winced at your words. He didn't get to dictate how things went.

 

"I'd like to explain. If you'd let me." He said. The light from the fire flickered amongst the shadows created by his hood. 

 

Your eyes flicked to the side, where Pan and Devin stood against a tree, pretending not to watch the exchange. You internally rolled my eyes. Busybodies, the lot of them.

 

"Meet me at the archery range then." You told him.

 

His eyes widened slightly, but he nodded. "Of course."

 

Before he could say anything else you walked past him, away from the campfire as you tried to breathe normally.

 

"Meddling in things, are we?" You asked Pan and Devin as you approached them.

 

"Of course not," Pan said, feigning confusion. Devin only grinned. "I told you he'd come around eventually didn't I?"

 

"With a little push from you?"

 

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

 

"Right." You deadpanned. "Well, I don't care how much you like to interfere. Either of you. We've agreed to talk things out tonight and I won't appreciate being spied on."

 

Pan put a hand over his heart. "I would never think of something so invasive." He sighed when you made a point to glare at him. "I promise not to spy, or to send anyone else to spy on you and Felix tonight."

 

"Thank you, Pan." You said.

 

Dinner was a normal affair. You often caught Felix's eye from across the fire before averting your eyes back down to your plate, hoping the blush on your cheeks wasn't too evident. Some of the boys were tuned in to the tension, whispering and grinning as they looked between the two of you. You glared at them all.

 

You waited until most of the boys were either asleep or lounging tiredly around camp before making the short walk to the archery range. Constantly fiddling with your bow or the quiver strap across your chest, you tried not to think about how nervous you were about confronting him.

 

You waited at the clearing for what could've been hours but what was probably only minutes. You cursed quietly, wishing he would hurry up and get here before your nerves ate you alive.

 

There was a rustling in the trees behind you and Felix stepped out as you turned around. He looked ever the Lost Boy with the bow and quiver that had replaced his usual club. You were fairly certain he'd also changed into a new shirt since dinner.

 

"I still can't shoot properly." You told him, pulling the quiver over your head and dropping it on the ground beside you. "Come help me."

 

He walked over quietly as you reached down to pull out an arrow. You turned to face the target as Felix put down his bow and walked up behind you.

 

"And you're… okay with me touching you?" He questioned.

 

"I wouldn't ask if I wasn't."

 

You took in a long breath as his hands came to rest on you. His left on your shoulder and his right on your hip - just like last time. He'd stepped closer than before though, and you could feel the heat of his chest against your back, your bodies almost touching.

 

"Pull your shoulders back a little," Felix said. His breath was warm on your neck.

 

"Is that why you've been avoiding me?" You did as he asked, but kept your bow lowered in front of you. "Because you thought that I wasn't okay with you touching me?"

 

"I thought that I'd made you uncomfortable."

 

"I told you that it didn't."

 

"I think I overlooked that part." He sighed. "As soon as you told me that you couldn't relax when I touched you I just assumed the worst."

 

"And what was that?"

 

"That I was someone who you didn't want to be close to." He said. "I wanted - I want - to be someone that you feel safe around. I hated the idea of you thinking of me otherwise."

 

"So instead of actually talking to me you just blew me off?" Your hands tightened on your bow as your voice rose. "Why would you think I didn't want to be around you when I kept on making the effort to talk to you?

 

"We've been spending time with each other for months and for you to just start ignoring me like that, going out of your way to avoid me, it hurt Felix. It hurt a lot." You hated how shaky your voice was becoming.

 

He pulled you a little closer so that your body was pressed lightly against his."I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm sorry that I did. I was just afraid."

 

"Afraid of what?" You whispered.

 

"I've… been thinking about you for a while now." He confessed. "You're always in my thoughts, always on my mind. Every time I see you I just want to be close to you. So when I thought you hated me touching you… I couldn't stand to have you think of me like that. Staying away from you seemed like a better alternative to knowing for sure that you didn't want me as I want you."

 

You dropped your bow and arrow on the ground and leaned back into Felix's embrace. His breath hitched as you took his hands and wrapped his arms around you.

 

"It'd been so long since someone touched me so softly as you did. I've grown used to living without small physical affection like that. When you put your hands on me, it startled me." You traced tiny patterns on the back on his hand.

 

"Then when you took your hands away," you continued, "I realised that I liked it when you held me. That I wanted you to hold me again. All week, all I've been able to think about is how your hands felt, and how much I craved to feel them again."

 

You turned around, locking eyes with Felix. Your heart beat faster as you brushed the hood off his hand and placed your hands on his chest. He tightened his grip on you ad pulled you closer into his embrace, never breaking eye contact.

 

"I…" He began, then hesitated.

 

"I want you Felix, is what I'm saying. Only you. I know that now." You told him. "You have nothing to be afraid of."

 

His hand reached up to brush a strand of hair behind your ear. Like so many times before you couldn't read his expression. Always so guarded, your Lost Boy.

 

"I want you too." He mumbled. His eyes slowly dropped to your lips, red dusting his cheeks.

 

"Kiss me." You whispered. His gaze flew back up to your eyes, surprised at your demand even now. You chuckled. "Don't go getting shy on me now."

 

"I'm not shy," Felix said, threading his fingers through your hair. 

 

"Prove it."

 

His lips were on yours as soon as the words left your mouth. The kiss started slow, unsure. After so many years on Neverland, something as simple as this had become foreign to both of you.

 

In seconds it evoked into something harder, hungrier. Felix pulled you closer to him, pressing your bodies against each other and devouring any thought that wasn't how good this felt.

 

Oh god, you would never get enough of this.

 

When you'd kissed until you could no longer breathe he pulled away and rested his forehead on yours.

 

"I believed finally kissing you would ease all these maddening thoughts I have about you, but after that, I think you're the only thing I'm ever going to think about again." He whispered, breathless.

 

"Kiss me again you romantic fool." You said, equally as dazed, and he did.


End file.
